


The Spindle

by ziazippy5379



Series: The Tales of Galahad and Jasper [2]
Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Jenkins is a matchmaker, Matchmaking, Multi, Reincarnation, The Librarians Prompt Month 2019, but it's not actually them, the relationship is Cassandra/Ezekiel/Jacob
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 03:02:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19123249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziazippy5379/pseuds/ziazippy5379
Summary: Jasper sent Galahad to collect the spindle that sent the princess into a deathlike sleep. The king and queen will only give it to him if their daughter agrees to marry the price that awoke her. Now he must find a way to make that happen. Only a stable boy seems to be in the middle of it.





	The Spindle

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be for sleeping beauty's spindle but ended up being more royalty AU. It was a lot of fun either way.
> 
> The idea of a lot of this is the characters are past lives of some of our librarians that Jenkins met while he was working with Jasper.
> 
> I wrote this whole thing today so it may be a little rough in places.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

“He’s an utter barbarian,” the princess yelled. “I would rather marry the stable boy.”

The stable boy who had been handing Galahad the leads to his horse took off with a scared look on his face. Galahad didn’t blame him. He wished he could escape so easily. But it was not the case that he could. Jasper had sent him to collect the spindle that had sent this same princess to sleep.

It had been a curse placed on her as a child that she would sleep until her true love woke her. A prince from a neighboring kingdom had come and awoken her as according to the curse. But that is where things had apparently stopped going well. The princess had decided that she hated the prince and was refusing to do as her parents wanted and marry him. The prince on his part was staying out of the fray as much he could while being utterly besotted with the princess.

Galahad for his part would have rather stayed out of it as well. But when he arrived requesting to take the spindle to keep it from harming anyone else the princess’ parent had refused. Though he was a knight and they trusted him with it they wanted something in return. And that request was convincing the princess to marry the prince. Under other circumstances, he might have just stolen the spindle and been on his way but there were magical safeguards on it.

So now Galahad was going as an escort to the princess while she rode and trying to talk her around. Which is how he ended up being yelled at by the princess.

“All he cares for is his horse and training. He has no brain between his ears,” she continued.

Galahad was not going to point out how smart someone had to be to have the prince’s tactile ability. He was the second son in his family and was trained to lead their army. But telling the princess would help no one.

“There is no way to carry an intellectual conversation with him. I wouldn’t even mind if the topic was not something I care much for if it was interesting. But horses and fighting are all he talks about.”

He had to give the princess that. The prince did seem to speak of little else. And the princess had a brilliant mind. She loved to study the different interactions between substances and studying the stars. She had begun to do the calculations required in running a kingdom before she had left the nursery. She had a mind like few other he had met and understood her need for someone closer to her level to talk to.

“Even just one topic I could relate to on some level. But no none of this matters. He woke me from the cruse and therefore he is my true love and I must marry him. Well, he’s not. My true love could not be some pretty, empty head. And that’s all he is. A pretty head”

With that, she glared over at Galahad from atop her horse. She had barely broken her rant to mount and begin the ride. They were well onto the trail at that point and so there was no escaping with the information he had gathered. As well as her main objection to the price he had learned that she did not find him unattractive.

He wanted to move the conversation somewhere else, so she didn’t yell at him again. So, he asked the only question he could think of and instantly regretted it.

“Why the stable boy?”

“What?” she asked thrown off balance by his off-topic reply.

He had committed and so continued.

“You said you would rather marry the stable boy. Why him?”

“He was there,” she said flatly.

Galahad said nothing. The princess took this as a sign that he wasn’t satisfied and spoke again.

“Fine. It’s because he makes me laugh. And because he is way smarter than anyone thinks. He knows the whole castle inside and out and when I lost the key to the lock on my riding gear he opened it faster than anyone else could have. He’s kind and generous. I see him give the last of his food to the kids that lost their parents even when he barely eat himself.”

By the time she had finished, there was a fond look on her face. Then she came to herself and looked at Galahad realizing how much trouble she could be in. More the trouble that she could have gotten the stable boy in. If Galahad told anybody the best that could happen was losing his job. He did not want to think about the worst. But Galahad would not wish to cause that sort of misfortune and told the princess such.

“Your secret is safe with me. I will tell no one what you have spoken to me today.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

They finished their ride in silence and Galahad went to think about all he had learned and what he could do with it.

\---

A few days later Galahad was no closer to getting the spindle. If anything he was further. After their ride, the princess became even more stubborn if it was possible and the prince was beginning to look as if he was losing hope. Galahad decided to try and work on him and went to attend one of his training sessions.

The prince was quite good at sparring. Galahad watched more than a few rounds and the prince won every time. Most all of the men there to spar went against the prince since he had offered that anyone who beat him would have a place at his table for dinner. So far nobody had received that honor.

Galahad realized that there would be no way for him to speak to the prince during training. His best bet would be to win that challenge. So, when the nest call for a partner went up Galahad took it.

The fight lasted longer than any of the other matches that the prince had been in so far. The prince was good, but he hadn’t been alive for centuries and been a knight for most of that time. Galahad won but not without effort.

Galahad gave his hand to the prince to help him up and spoke.

“A well fought match for now and not the battlefield.”

This was not the normal phrasing in this part of the world nor at this time anywhere. Galahad had heard no one use the phrase in a generation. So, it was a surprise when the prince used the traditional response.

“Better for now than then and may it never come.”

Then once on his feet, the prince gave Galahad a grin.

“I guess we will be dining together tonight.”

\---

Dinner had gone about as well as Galahad should have expected. He had been sat with the royal family as well as the prince. The conversation was kept to small. The king and queen were the ones who spoke the most and tried to get Galahad to tell stories from his time traveling. He told a few which were highly edited to take out most of the magic. The princess and prince spoke little. But when the prince did speak Galahad noticed a few peculiarities. There were bits in his speech that were from times long gone and made reference to a few works that were older than Galahad himself. Some could be due to an older relative but not all. Galahad was not able to speak to the prince but had been able to get some interesting information.

\---

As with most royal homes, there was a library. It was not as big as Jasper’s, but few were. It was still a quite impressive library. The area in the front was where the contemporary books were and the farther in the older books got. Galahad had no interest in the new books, so he headed farther back. It was late and he was the only one there. He was not quite sneaking.

The section of the older book that showed the most use was those about math and science. With the princess’ interest in those topics, this was to be expected. What would not have been expected was the amount of disturbance in the books of history and poetry. As far as he knew none of the court had any interest in such things.

Galahad heard the sounds of someone approaching and made the decision to hide. He ducked behind the end of the bookcase just as the person came down the aisle. To his surprise, it was the stable boy that the princess had spoken so fondly of. He stopped in front of a section of poetry and grabbed one of the books. He then hurriedly left.

Galahad wondered what could make the boy willing to come and take a book. He knew how harsh the punishment could be for that. Especially if he removed it from the library. Only members of the court could during the day while the record keeper was there.

He followed the boy to see where he would take the book. They went through the castle until they reached the corridor that led to the prince’s rooms. The stable boy knocked quietly on the door and handed the book to the prince. The boy turned to leave and once his back was turned Galahad saw the same look on the prince's face as he had when the princess had spoken of the boy. Galahad left before he could be seen.

\---

When Galahad checked the next day the book was back where it belonged.

\---

One of the requirements the king and queen had set on the princess was that she must spend at least an hour with the prince each day. Mostly she insisted this happened in the gardens. Everyone knew this and many gathered to watch. Galahad normally did not waste his time but there was someone he needed to check for. He went to the side of the garden nearest the stables and waited.

Before long his suspicions were satisfied and the stable boy came up and peeked through the bushes at the couple. He didn’t notice Galahad right away and just watched them. The look he had was pure longing that the prince and princess dare not even think of letting themselves feel.

“Were you there when he woke her?” Galahad asked.

The boy startled and looked to Galahad for the first time. He didn’t speak and so Galahad repeated his question.

“Yes,” the boy said shakily. “The curse didn’t work on me. I led the prince to her, and he woke her.”

“You were touching her,” Galahad stated.

“I held her hand. She’s always been so nice to me.”

The boy looked ready to bolt. There would be a lot of trouble if certain people found out. But Galahad was not one of those. He remembered what happened between Arthur, Guinevere, and his father. If these three could be spared that Galahad would try to make it happen.

“I won’t tell anyone,” Galahad said. “You have my word.”

The boy looked less likely to bolt but no less worried.

“You care for them both, don’t you?” Galahad asked.

“Yes. But all I can hope for is them to be happy with each other. Not that seems to be happening. She doesn’t like him much,” the boy said his love breaking through his fear.

“She finds his conversation boring,” Galahad said. He only promised the princess he would not share what she had said about the stable boy. “She wants him to be more intellectual.”

“Really? So, if he talked about the history and poetry he loves she might like him?” he asked perking up a bit.

“Quite likely. Do you think you can convince him to do that?”

“Yes! He’s just been afraid because his family looks down on that. But if the princess would like it he definitely will.”

The boy rushed off to go back to his duties and to wait to talk to the prince. Galahad watched him with a smile.

\---

Within a week the princess was already more taken with the prince. According to the stable boy, the prince had begun to talk to her about all his reading. And it turned out he had a love of art as well. He still didn’t share it with the court, but the princess was the one who mattered. She also tried to learn about those topics while he attempted to learn about science and math. But Galahad was not satisfied as the king and queen were. They had offered to let him stay longer as thanks since they believed he was the one who changed her mind. He gratefully accepted the offer for a while.

Galahad wanted to find a way to help the stable boy. He knew that the draw the boy had on both the prince and princess would only end in tragedy if they were not helped along. Except there was no way to be open on such sensitive subjects.

His opportunity came when the princess came to him for help. She wanted to get a book for the prince and asked for his help. They Galahad escorted her to town and helped her find one. What he didn’t tell her was the story the poem told was of a royal couple that opened their hearts and relationship to a third party. He hoped they would get the message.

\---

Nothing seemed to change to the majority of the court. But Galahad was not them. He saw subtle differences. The young couple took more rides. They smiled just a bit more. The stable boy smiled more than ever which no one noticed.

Galahad decided that he was no longer needed at this castle. He went to the king and queen and again requested the spindle be given to him to take to Jasper’s library. They willingly gave it to him, and he prepared to leave. He said his goodbyes to the princess and stable boy, but the prince insisted on riding the first stretch with him.

“Thank you,” the prince said before turning back to the castle. “I know the poem was your idea. There was no way we would have figured this all out without that.”

“You are welcome. I could not allow true love to turn into tragedy.”

Neither of them said exactly what they meant but they understood enough. They parted ways and Galahad went on back towards his home at Jasper’s library.

\---

“You were gone for quite a long time,” Jasper said after the spindle had been properly stowed. “Did you have trouble?”

“Not really. There was a task I needed to complete,” Galahad responded. He didn’t much want to go into more detail. It wasn’t his story to tell.

“Anything I would find interesting?” the dragon asked with a hint of amusement.

“No.”

She wouldn’t. Jasper didn’t much like hearing about the love of humans. She said they made it too complicated. Often Galahad agreed. But something about those three stood out to him. He hoped that he would meet them again someday.

**Author's Note:**

> So I wasn't at all subtle about who was who.
> 
> I know some people wanted more Jasper and this is not that story. That one is coming later this month (just guess what day).
> 
> I may need to do something where Galahad encounters previous lives of Eve and Flynn at some point.
> 
> See you later with today's prompt.
> 
> Thank you for reading and I hoped you enjoyed. Kudos and comments are always welcome.
> 
> (you can find me on tumblr at theredshirtsarecoming)


End file.
